Amateur film photographer, documenting my experience with my camera as I progress

Hadrian’s Villa and Tivoli

The other Friday we had our final course field trip, this time taking a bus out to Tivolito explore Hadrian’s Villa and the beautiful gardens of Villa d’Este.

We spent the morning wandering through Hadrian’s ‘villa’ (more like a small town if you ask me, but hey, maybe not to a rich Roman Emperor).

There were some very impressive gardens, full of olive trees and spring flowers starting to bloom, which surrounded the ancient ruins. It was a day of glorious sunshine, and not hard to understand why Hadrian liked to spend time in his country abode rather than in the urban centre of Rome.

I did spend a fair amount of time trying to capture the silvery-grey colour of the olive trees, which is inexplicably harder to do than I thought it would be. Perhaps it’s just one of those things that is difficult to capture on camera as you experience it. But I did try:

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After leaving Hadrian’s villa, we jumped back on the bus and travelled up the hill (mountain?) to Tivoli itself, where we stopped to look at a well-preserved Temple of Vesta amidst the sleepy Italian town.

Back on the bus, down to the town centre, some pizza and a rest were necessary, before quickly running (and yes, I mean running) around Villa d’Este so that we had time to see all of it before our curfew for travelling back to Rome.

The fountains and gardens in this Villa were unparalleled; I don’t think I’ve seen so many impressive fountains in one place before. In the sunlight, rainbows were dancing on the water, which streamed in powerful jets and gentler trickles depending on which fountain you were observing: